NBA owners keep trying to pretend that their teams are real businesses

They're not, of course, which is why the current push to cut costs - even if it means killing off the upcoming season - doesn't make a whole lot of sense. For all the financial chatter you hear these days from those earnest-sounding NBA honchos, a sports franchise is mainly about ego and power - and maybe just a teensy-weensy bit about profit and loss. Writing for Grantland, Malcolm Gladwell says that in some ways pro teams are like works of art:

Forbes magazine annually estimates the value of every professional franchise, based on standard financial metrics like operating expenses, ticket sales, revenue, and physical assets like stadiums. When sports teams change hands, however, the actual sales price is invariably higher. Forbes valued the Detroit Pistons at $360 million. They just sold for $420 million. Forbes valued the Wizards at $322 million. They just sold for $551 million. Forbes said that the Warriors were worth $363 million. They just sold for $450 million. There are a number of reasons why the Forbes number is consistently too low. The simplest is that Forbes is evaluating franchises strictly as businesses. But they are being bought by people who care passionately about sports -- and the $90 million premium that the Warriors' new owners were willing to pay represents the psychic benefit of owning a sports team.

The owners, Gladwell writes, "are asking us to believe that these 'businesses' lose money. But of course an owner is only losing money if he values the psychic benefits of owning an NBA franchise at zero -- and if you value psychic benefits at zero, then you shouldn't own an NBA franchise in the first place."